News and inspiration for healthy living in Northern California

August 5, 2013

A study in the journal Stroke says people who are inactive -- exercising less than once a week -- are 20 percent more likely to have a stroke.

That's compared to people who exercise at least four times a week.

Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.

The National Institutes of Health describe a stroke as occurring when blood vessels that supply the brain become ruptured or blocked. As a result, brain cells die from lack of oxygen and other nutrients.

The five-year study looked at 27,000 black and white participants, men and women, from across the nation. They had no prior history of stroke, and were at least 45 years old.

About Healthy Choices

Cynthia H. Craft began her reporting and editing career in Columbus, Ohio, after graduating from Ohio State University. She worked at a Dallas, Texas, newspaper as an editor, and then at the Los Angeles Times, as an editor and Capitol Bureau correspondent. After working as editor in chief at the California Journal, Craft went to Lima, Peru, for three years as a visiting professor of journalism at Peruana Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas. She was a fellow in 2012 at the National Library for Medicine in Washington, D.C. at the National Institute for Health. She's currently The Sacramento Bee's senior writer on health, a position made possible by a grant from The California Endowment.